Atlas 618 Lathe Progress - Part II: Cross Slide Handle Repair

There were a couple pieces of broken handle bits in amongst the goodies I got with the mini Atlas lathe, and they happened to go with the broken handle on the cross slide. Not wanting to throw away perfectly good handle bits, I attempted to repair the handle. Besides, I'm cheap. Or Frugal. Not sure which.

First thing I did was turn down a piece of rod to an appropriate diameter to fit inside the neck of the broken handle. This was a perfect opportunity to try out my new lathe, too.

The lathe worked great. I can see that this lathe will not make heavy cuts in anything harder than, say, a stick of chalk, but it's still fun tinkering around with it.

Next step was to drill holes into the two handle pieces I needed to join. The holes were slightly larger than the pin I turned on the lathe so there would be room for the JB Weld I would use to glue everything together.

After packing JB Weld into the appropriate orifices, I assembled everything and clamped it in the mini (how appropriate...) vise to let harden overnight.

And here is the finished product. It actually turned out better than I'd hoped. Another small piece of history saved from the scrap bin.